Russell Maintains Lead, Aggies in Second at Southern Highlands
Mar 12, 2011 | Men's Golf
March 12, 2011
LAS VEGAS - Texas A&M junior Jordan Russell fired a 1-under 71 on Saturday and continues to lead the pack after two rounds of the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters.
Russell (College Station) sits at 9-under 135 for the tournament and leads Oklahoma State's Morgan Hoffman by two strokes after 36 holes. He is just one of three in the field to record back-to-back sub-par rounds (64-71) at the par-72, 7,510-yard Southern Highlands Golf Club.
The eighth-ranked Aggies shot an 8-over 296 on the day and that, coupled with a 12-under 276 from No. 21 Cal, has A&M (280-296=576, E) sitting six shots back of the Bears (570, -6) in second place heading into Sunday's final round.
"It was a little tougher out there for us today," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "We had some big numbers early and fought hard to get some shots back. I think that took a lot out of us emotionally and mentally, and when we hit a couple of bad shots coming down the stretch, we were just out of gas. But man, was I proud of our guys for how hard they fought back. We really didn't play much different than yesterday but our reactions to bad shots or bad breaks was not nearly as good today."
No. 1 Oklahoma State (580, +4) is in third, followed by No. 2 UCLA (+8), No. 14 Georgia Tech (+12), Arizona State (+19), No. 22 Duke (+20), UNLV (+20), TCU (+25) and No. 6 Texas (+26). No. 14 Georgia (+27) is in 11th, with No. 24 USC (+29), Baylor (+30), No. 19 Texas Tech (+30) and Arizona (+42) rounding out the field.
Senior Conrad Shindler (69-77=146, +2) sits in 14th place, while sophomore Cameron Peck (73-76=149, +5) is 24th, senior John Hurley (79-72=151, +7) is 34th and senior Nacho Elvira (74-78=152, +8) is 40th. Sophomore Case Cochran, playing as an individual, is in 72nd with a 161 (80-81).
"I think this round was a great learning experience for our team and we learned a little about what it will take be an elite team this year," Higgins said. "With all that said, we are still in second place with a great opportunity to win the biggest tournament of the spring. We have been strong in the final round all year and I think we will show up tomorrow ready to compete."
Texas A&M is paired with Cal and Big 12 rival OSU in the third and final round, with the Aggies' tee times starting at approximately 9:30 a.m. Pacific time. Live scoring will be available on golfstat.com.
